fopping.com – Making online shopping more social

Couple of years back no one expected ecommerce to catch on so fiercely in India, but today not a week passes when we don’t hear about either a new ecommerce site getting launched or someone getting funded in this space.

We have yet another one joining the ranks – Fopping.com. It is based on the premise of making shopping more social. It has more deeper integration with customer’s social network than most others. fopping.com integrates consumer’s social profile in determining price of the product. Consumers earn rewards based on their social strengths and friend circle.

We spoke to Mr. Rama Jamili, Director & Co-founder of fopping.com and here is what he had to say:

1) With Indian Ecommerce space getting saturated, especially in verticals that fopping is into, what do you see will be USP of Fopping ?

R.J –E-retail has caught the fancy of many as the growth of technology has empowered consumers in India as never before. Many websites have sprung up over the last one year who is looking to tap into this emerging market. The key to survival for any e-commerce website is to provide a wholesome shopping experience to the customer while giving him the best value on the products.

As the customer is not able to see or feel the products, the onus of reciprocating him for this as well as keeping his faith in the website is the driving force behind fopping.com. We want to make online shopping a fun experience so we have linked our share and gain reward system with social networking sites like Facebook and twitter. Ours is the first website in India that uses the social networking strength of a person (based on his friend list) to reward him with fopps. Each fopp is equal to a Rupee that can be redeemed for a certain amount on each and every product on our website. We believe in delighting the customer with our deep and varied categories, share and gain fopps along with prompt delivery. This is our USP.

2) How does Fopping plan to capture Consumer mindshare?

R.J – Today Google, Facebook and Twitter rule the Internet space. We have focused our unique share and gain model on fopps earned by sharing products from our website onto the customer’s personal page. Depending on his friends list, he is rewarded fopps. But more importantly, through him we are able to reach more of our targeted market segment. At the same time, by rewarding the customer, we are delighting him as we are demonstrating his socio- commercial impact. We constantly endeavor to get every kind of merchandise on our website- from Haute couture designer wear to cult brands, hi- fashion to home-furnishings. Our website also stresses more on visual merchandising through our banners and product displays to capture the imagination.

3) Offering points (Rs) based on Social Connections – Is it a big enough reward for users to come and buy at fopping. What happens if a user has very low social connection?

R.J – It may or may not be. But we have this vision of making Shopping more social, with that we have started. Soon you will see more innovations from our end to make Fopping more Fun and social.

4) I have not understood it really works…can you please elaborate on it

R.J – In simple steps, Share product before you buy, Earn FOPPS depending on number of friends a user has and last is buying the product.

5) What are future plans and targets you have set for fopping.com

R.J – We want to maintain our uniqueness and bring out more innovative ideas into implementation to make shopping more social.

6) Ecommerce market is heading towards consolidation, what are your thoughts on those.

R.J – Consolidation is good for us. Our uniqueness helps us in a consolidated market.

7) What is the existing customer base and are you seeing any transactions currently?

R.J –We are in stealth mode in regards to this. Our competitors are prying on us, but it is reasonable to say we are growing at a good rate

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Give fopping.com a spin and let us know what you think about fopping.com…

Arun Prabhudesai is founder / chief editor at trak.in. He jumped the Entrepreneurship bandwagon in early 2008 after a long 13 year stint in I.T Industry. You can follow him on twitter @trakin and Facebook.Arun’s Google+ Profile

Do Not Buy from Fopping.com EVER! I have had such a frustrating experience with this one.Pathetic customer care! A scam,really..
1.They will Never call u back,they just keep saying so.
2.Once they have your money,they give a damn.
3.Silly excuses- accounts department suspended lol,festival rush/holidays are on,we couldnt reach u on the phone no u provided us,we will call u back in 15mins cz we are experiencing a temporary glitch etc n etc.
4.Never reply to mails.

I sent a product back for replacement,they acknowledged its receipt but never sent me the replacement or gave me a refund! Just stop responding..i miss my money :(